What I Got from Kuwait’s Book Fair 2012

I didn’t get the chance to go to the book fair until last Thursday night. Big mistake as it was very crowded and swarming with people. If I wanted to look at a book I’d have to shove my way past people who seem to be glued at the book displays and wouldn’t budge.

I had a few book in my mind, one of them is the highly acclaimed novel The Bamboo Stick for Saud Al-Sanousi. I looked all over the fair for it and finally found it, finished it over the weekend and would recommend it to anyone who would listen.

I noticed a new trend this year, or maybe its been there since last year but I hadn’t noticed it: whenever I find a new book by a young writer, I would find the writer sitting behind its display waiting to sign it! I even complained about a book to a book seller only for the book seller to turn out to be the writer himself. I’m not saying its a bad thing, but its just different having so many writers sitting behind the book displays and people mistaking them for book sellers. They do have quite an audience though.

In the end I got out with one cookbook by Hanouf Al-Balhan, two novels by Saud Al-Sanousi, and a bunch of other books all by young Kuwaiti writers. I think I’d have gotten more books had I chosen to go on Saturday morning instead of Thursday night like I did last year (post) but I have a feeling I wouldn’t have gotten much out of it anyway.

Did you go to the book fair? What did you get and what do you think?